Macklemore Faces Backlash Over Anti-Israel Performance During Ed Sheeran Tour
Rapper Macklemore faced swift public backlash and a formal petition after delivering an anti-Israel performance while opening for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. According to reporting by Fox News correspondent CB Cotton and the New York Post, the Grammy-winning rapper wore a keffiyeh and led the crowd in chanting “Free Palestine” during the September 4 concert.
The performance triggered immediate condemnation from concertgoers, community organizations, and public figures. The Israeli-American Council launched a petition urging Ed Sheeran to drop the rapper from the remainder of his tour, accusing Macklemore of spreading antisemitic propaganda.
### Public and Fan Outrage at MetLife Stadium
According to the New York Post, concertgoer Moshe Creditor, 21, attended the New Jersey show with his mother and described feeling horrified by the scale of the political demonstration. Creditor stated that the artist prompted an audience of roughly 80,000 people to chant political slogans while playing the song “Hind’s Hall,” a track named after a building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University, accompanied by video footage from Gaza on giant screens.
Another attendee, Josh Wein, told the New York Post that the sudden political lecture left his young daughters confused and ruined the family’s concert experience. Actor Michael Rapaport also criticized the rapper on social media, labeling the performance a “clown” act, as reported by BriefRay.
### The Israeli-American Council Responds
The Israeli-American Council, representing more than 15,000 Israeli-Americans, issued a sharp critique regarding the use of a major pop concert as a political platform.
“This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event,” the organization stated, according to the New York Post. The group argued that the performance relied on selective imagery and disputed claims presented to a massive audience as fact without context or complexity.
Rabbi Menachem Creditor publicly criticized Ed Sheeran’s management team for hiring Macklemore as an opening act given his history of contentious political remarks, asserting that the headliner now holds a responsibility to disavow the rhetoric and apologize to disappointed fans. Representatives for Ed Sheeran and Macklemore did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Post.
Related reading